Vacation Day 3:

Yeah, yeah, yeah ...

I'll get back to finishing my Day 1 and  Day 2 posts. Eventually. 

We are cramming an awful lot of excitement into our Colorado  days. 

(We've been to a Super Target. A Super Walmart. Tomorrow she's got Best Buy on her brain...)

Haha. 

Plus there's been hours of sightseeing.

So many sights.  

To see.

Today we drove up to Colorado Springs so that I could have lunch with the Thriving Family team from Focus US. Pics later.

Then we drove through the Garden of the Gods. (Will do that again, on Tuesday, Pics later.)

Then we checked out the Cave Dwellers. (Fascinating. Will post pics tomorrow. Maybe.)

And on a whim, we decided to drive to the top of  Pikes Peak.

Have you heard of it?

We hadn't.

Sandra was driving our rented Jeep.

We were stopped at the bottom and warned that it would take 1 hour to drive the 19 miles to the summit. And it would take another hour to drive back. That left us with 15 minutes to stop and take pics. 

We assured her we were speedy picture takers, and 15 minutes was plenty of time.

The first 3 - 5 miles were lovely. Gentle curves as we slowly increased our elevation. 

When we got to the first reservoir, we stopped and allowed ourselves 3 minutes to take photos.

Shortly after that, we started some serious climbing, and the combination of me looking out the window, viewing the scenery through the camera lens at varying focal lengths, while switching back and forth through hairpin turns, was making me nauseas. 

At one point I looked over the edge and realized we were pretty high up, and it made me dizzy. 

"Uh, we're sure climbing, eh?" I say.

"Yeah. The Jeep's working hard..."

"Pretty steep down this side..."

"Oh."

We keep driving. 

I open my window to let in some cold air. 

And then?
We were above the tree line.

Like WAY above it.

Which means?
There are no more trees lining the highway.

Which means?
You have no frame of reference when you hit an outside curve with a steep incline. Especially when the shoulder disappears as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's go back to the beginning of the day.

So...
Day 3.
We started it by driving from Denver to Colorado Springs.

(There are random rock formations in fields. This one was in the smack dab in the middle of a large open area. Weird)
(And kind of lovely.)

The Creative Team at Focus US had offered to take us out for lunch.

There are 5 huge buildings (wayyyy larger than our Canada building) on the campus. They have almost 600 employees. (We have about 50.) And Colorado Springs, by the way, has the second most lightening strikes IN THE COUNTRY. So when a storm would pass through the area, an announcement would be made that all visitors and employees should remain inside until it was safe to leave the building.